I went to see my rheumatologist today. I told him that the steroid injection had helped. The pain in my wrist had reduced but had no abated completely.
I asked him if there was any possible connection between the inflammation in my
wrist and the inflammation in my
face, diagnosed as Bell's Palsy. He confirmed that Bell's palsy is what doctors diagnose when they don't know what the problem is.
Contrary to what the GP said, he then said that it was possible the 2 sources of inflammation were connected. He got very excited about a possible connection as he had looked for this with other patients but hadn't found it. So, I could be the star subject of his next paper, if there is a link. This link could be
sarcoidosis or snappily shortened to
sarcoid, which is an auto-immune disease causing inflammation whose symptoms include
arthritis in the ankles and
paralysed facial muscles.
On the other hand, sarcoid tends to affect the lungs first and my chest x-ray showed nothing untoward. The rheumatologist was going to send me for a lung function test but said that with my frozen face, I couldn't do the test. It probably involves blowing into a cardboard tube, which I think is used to check for asthma and other breathing problems.
To find out if there is a link, he ordered yet another test for me on 15/1/08. This will be a
Gallium scan which will involve being injected with radioactive 56Ga which has a half-life of 78.3 hours.
If the compound used is Gallium Citrate, it should concentrate in inflammed areas.
2 days later, I will get scanned on 17/1/08 and sources of inflammation should show up.
Apparently, if the doctor can see a
panda on my scan, I have a 95% chance of having sarcoid.
I will see the rheumatologist on 29/1/08 for the Gallium results.
After all this speculation, it the uncovering of a possible link between my afflictions, it was time to forgot all that and travel to my
CeFA-3 exam which started in 2 hours.
Labels: 56Ga, arthritis, Bell's palsy, CeFA-3, exam, face, frozen, frozen face, gallium, gallium scan, rheumatologist, sarcoid, sarcoidosis, wrist pain
